[19Yzerman19]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

It sounds like a cool thing for a city to have though, so if you think it would work why not look into it? Spitball ideas are how many really neat businesses get going

I guess talking about it here is sort of kicking it around. I think I will look into it. It's really a matter of figuring out the startup costs as much as anything.

Let's say you rent a 90,000 square foot building in an industrial area. We could ask in the commercial property thread, but I bet $10 per square foot per year is about right for rent. Add another $2 per square foot for operating costs (heat/electricity) and you have $12*90,000= 1.08 million

Is this a conservative figure per square foot for a large empty space like this? Like I say I don't know the comm real estate market. Are there areas in the city where you could get it for $6 per sq foot, for example? Not saying you know, but if someone has any experience with it I'm curious. Also worth noting that if you drop it to, say, 50,000 square feet (still a lot), you cut that cost significantly. At $6psf + $2 op cost x 50,000 you're looking at $400k. If some of these variables are in fact variable it becomes a lot more feasible in a hurry, seems to me.

Figure on being open 5 hours on weekdays and 12 on weekends is 49 hours *52 weeks = 2548 hours. You probably need at least three people on staff any time its open for cleaning/maintenance/selling tickets/checking tickets/calling an ambulance for someone who hurts themselves. Figure that costs $15 per hour with wages/cpp/etc.
2548*3*15 = 115,000.

This does sound fairly conservative. It's elastic depending on what else you want to use the space for. Let's say you offered mountain bike lessons to kids? More staff, potentially more revenue. If you've got a shop, you've probably got a tech and one or two people selling gear, same deal.

Maybe you could cover the missing costs selling day passes and running birthday parties.

Ski resort management 101 suggests that of actual lift revenue, the vast majority comes from day tickets. Season pass revenue is essentially an initial injection of capital to get the place up and running at the start of the season. Obviously something like this would run year round, it's a different model with a different base of consumers... but I'm not 100% sure that the day ticket purchases would be considered a bonus; might well be a big chunk of overall revenue.

But maybe I'm underestimating how many people would be interested in buying one because I wouldn't be interested in buying one.

500 passes doesn't sound at all out of the question to me. Also note that there isn't anything like this in surrounding communities - it'd probably pull in some enthusiasts from Cochrane, Strathmore, Okotoks, etc. At the very least you'd get weekenders.

I would try and see if you could sublease some of the space ahead of time (snack bar, bike sales/repair shop) to help cover your costs.

This of course assumes you'd sublet it. I would think subletting the shop wouldn't be a bad call, since somewhere like Bowcycle or Bike Shop obviously have the experienced staff who are probably twiddling their thumbs for the most part in the winter months. Not to mention there's lots of cross-marketing potential there.

But I can see just operating the food, I feel like that'd be a solid cash cow; there's nothing but margin on sport drinks and protein shakes.

Originally Posted by Locke

Theres something hilariously ironic about a bunch of cyclists driving for an hour to go ride their bikes indoors.

Why, they drive for more than that to go ride them in Fernie or Canmore or Kananaskis or whatever. Or hell, COP is a decent trek for a fair number of people.